To not understand how everyone on insta and tiktok is so beautiful

Makeup, filters, youth, plus a lot of money into looking good.

It's nothing new really. When I was a teenager, we all had terrible self esteem as we were comparing ourselves to the photos in the stupid teen magazines we all read, with gorgeous models and infinite dieting ideas.

To echo everyone else: filters, photo editing….and very clever makeup and lighting tricks.

So many makeup tutorial videos out there are simply not wearable in real life because the contouring etc is done to work with the poster’s clever lighting 🫠😂
Try showing up to work like that and it ends up looking like you’ve tried to turn yourself into a tiger at a kids’ face painting party 🫣😂

You hit the nail on the head. It isn't a filter, I purposely gave AI the first photo and told it to make him into a Disney dog for comedic effect. (I'd done this a while ago, not for this post, but for something else).

I too prefer him in real life, although sadly he is no longer of this world.

ETA - thank you for the compliment though, he was very gorgeous.

Gorgeous puppy! But it's heinous what the Instagram filter has done!! He looks like a cartoon version of himself. Disney dog 😥

My dog in real life, and my dog on Instagram

Agree with all of that.

There is a great app I think it’s called remeni
you upload photos and pick a scene / outfit so beach mountains London Eiffel Tower and the app filters the pic puts you in the pic

some of the pics I’ve took with it are actually pretty good and do look like me just a more polished version but not fake

Tbh I thought it was only me who had grown old when I look at contemporaries on insta. They remain wrinkle free, think Nicole Kidman, and have denture teeth, a la Simon Cowell. I think I look pretty dire but surprisingly get compliments. Perhaps its because I look unthreateningly real (and my actual age)

Recently my gs's were chatting to someone and when asked who it was, they looked at me as if I was mad and told me it was a distant relative. I can say hand on heart they bore no resemblance remotely to their online pics. I do wear glasses but I cant be that far wrong, can I.

I’m not attractive so I don’t have a TikTok account as I wouldn’t want people to see me! I’m guessing people who are attractive realise they can make money from it. I realise I am not attractive hence why I don’t try to make money from it.
you can apply the same to other characteristics that make money, eg funny (comedian), intelligent (opinion pages, psychology), physically fit (fitness), a good cook (nutrition).
My insta is very very varied. I think perhaps your algorithms only show you beauty/fashion content.

there are plenty of people on my insta who are there for other talents and their attractiveness is irrelevant.

It’s called filters. HTH.

Two-fold reason:

1- It’s a self-selective sample you are seeing. Beautiful people post themselves and WANT to post themselves. It of course doesn’t apply to all, but if you are above-average in attractiveness, you will less likely have qualms about posting pictures of yourself on social media, you can capitalise on your looks, make some spare cash, get an endless ego boost from comments telling you how hot you look and you can start trends for fashion, beauty and make-up. You’ve been hot all your life and you like being hot. You know people find you hot. People like looking at beautiful people and people listen to beautiful people about beauty, makeup and clothes. The vast majority of the female general public (me included) - in other words people who either average, or aren't as genetically blessed as supermodels will not be posting endless pictures of them in bikinis or in white sundresses on the Riviera.

2- Lots of filters, makeup, blowdries lighting and AI. A lot of these girls will be taking hundreds of photos of themselves just to get one good one at the right angle. It’s very rarely a candid shot. Even “spontaneous” shots are heavily curated and prepared. They will be posting pictures of themselves when they look optimally flawless and from a flattering angle.

Sadly I’m not a beautiful person so nobody wants to see my goods but even if I were, it sounds like an exhausting life!! 🤣

Like others have said its filters, fillers, botox, makeup.

I keep seeing posts on threads saying things like "let's normalise grey hair and fine lines at 40+." Followed by a gazillion photos of people in their 40s and above which have clearly used filters, thus defeating the point of the post.

I literally never see anybody good looking walking around

It's all fake

😂 lol

There are plenty of less attractive people online but the algorithms don’t send them To you

People do it on their WhatsApp pics too, I means surely they realise everyone knows they don’t look anything like that?!

I'm beginning to think that these people get so used to seeing filtered pictures and videos of themselves, that they begin to believe that they genuinely look that way.

Well, as someone who has neither instagram nor tiktok, this thread is a revelation! I can't believe those Fake/Real photos! Do these people just front it out when they leave their homes? Surely all their friends and family know they're faking it online - and wouldn't that just indicate that the person has exceptionally low self-esteem about their looks? What a weird, schizophrenic/split existence.

Make up, filters, knowing how to take a great photo, photoshop and the fact that less appearance obsessed folks aren't spending their time trying to influence folks on instagram!

100% filters, fillers, botox. A friend of mine was going though a very hard time a while ago and she met someone who was heavily involved with Only Fans. They were telling her how she could do it by only showing her face.

My friend showed me photos of what her face could look like, that they had mocked up for her with filters and fillers. My friend was like wow I want to look like this. I said oh it's really fake. She was like oh don't say that. Like, she really wanted this.

But once you put your face out there, you can't take it back and you are then under pressure to keep it up or live some sort of double life.

Anyway she didn't do it thank goodness.

You're a cog in a (patriarchal) system, no matter how much you believe its free will and getting you certain privileges.

By all means, do it if you want, get fillers, botox, etc., but don't plaster your face online everywhere.

Ain't no such thing as a free lunch, and I'd take freedom over beauty.

Actually beauty is in the eye of the beholder and think it depends on your idea of what constitutes beauty.

Personally I excessively made up faces that are totally and unnaturally smooth and often with obviousl lip fillers, coupled with over styled hair really off putting because it takes the humanity out of them.

Imo they might as well be plastic dolls.

I much prefer people who look real. There is beauty and character in reality.

There are thousands of normal people on TikTok! Much more representation than in all the glossy mags I grew up with 🤷‍♀️

Filters and good angles. They are not posting quick snaps, they'll have 100 of that pose and pick the best.

Caked in makeup plus beauty/supermodel filter will give you that clone look. Filters work on live videos too. I am pleased I am married, and don't online date, as it must be like meeting a different person for alot of people! It is refreshing to see people, esp young women be more natural, and actually be themselves!

Edited to say as well that I know somebody irl who takes ages filtering and cropping her pics, that she looks like 25 year old uk size 10 (most taken shoulders up). In reality she is a size 18, 40 something year old that looks her age. If she was honest and real, widened her net, she would have a much better chance of meeting somebody.

how everyone on insta and tiktok is so beautiful

It must be who you follow because there's some fuck ugly people I follow on both of these and some very ordinary people too. I guess if you follow people who just talk about their perfect selves, perfect children and perfect lives rather than the politicians, chefs, sports people and comedians I follow then your results will be skewed.